The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino | Granta

  • Published: 06/06/2019
  • ISBN: 9781846277023
  • Granta Books
  • 208 pages

The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino

Hiromi Kawakami

Translated by Allison Markin Powell

Over the course of his life, Mr Nishino falls hopelessly in love again and again. One woman is a colleague, another a chance encounter; one is the girlfriend of a classmate, another the best friend of Nishino’s latest conquest. Some are entranced by Nishino, others care more for their freedom, their children (or their cats).

As we come to learn of the torments, desires and delights of each woman, a portrait emerges of a complicated man whose great capacity for love may well be the cause of his downfall.

Charming... beguiling and beautiful

Times

Quirky and delicate...timeless...I fell totally under the spell of this beautiful book

Daily Mail

The Author

Born in 1958 in Tokyo, HIROMI KAWAKAMI is one of Japan’s most popular contemporary novelists. She is the recipient of the Pascal Short Story Prize for New Writers and the Akutagawa Prize. Her novel Drowning won both the Ito Sei Literature Award and Joryu Bungaku Sho (Women Writers’ Prize) in 2000. Her novel Manazuru won the 2011 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize. Strange Weather in Tokyo (Sensei no kaban) won the Tanizaki prize in 2001 and was shortlisted for both the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize and the 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

More about the author →

The Translator

Allison Markin Powell has been awarded grants from English PEN and the NEA, and the 2020 PEN America Translation Prize for The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami. Her other translations include works by Osamu Dazai, Kanako Nishi, and Kaoru Takamura. She was the co-organizer and co-host of the Translating the Future conference, served as co-chair of the PEN America Translation Committee and currently represents the committee on PEN’s Board of Trustees, and as part of the collective, Strong Women, Soft Power, is curating JFNY’s online literary series.

More about the translator →

From the Same Author

Hiromi Kawakami on Granta.com

Fiction | The Online Edition

I Won’t Let You Go

Hiromi Kawakami

‘I have no idea why I felt so drawn to the mermaid, but the pull was irresistible.’

Fiction by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Allison Markin Powell.

Fiction | The Online Edition

People From My Neighbourhood

Hiromi Kawakami

‘First prize went to the dog school principal, who of course had submitted a cartoon dog.’ Translated from the Japanese by Ted Goossen.

Fiction | The Online Edition

Parfait

Hiromi Kawakami

‘He comes all the way here after he died and the two of you are making small talk?’ New fiction by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell